Workshop #1

– Our first workshop was held between the 1st and the 4th of December, at RUFY’S art center.
First off, the place smelt like cat piss. It was really suffocating that we had to cover our noses all through the first discussion, then we got used to it. We were only four; Aya Tarek (duh!), Ahmed Ragab (Also known as, Abo De7ka Genan), Sarah G. (The author of this blog, who can criticize the whole world while being completely unproductive) and finally, Mo-ayed (A twenty-year old guy who went through serve depression because his father didn’t buy him a play-station portable).

You think that’s sad? Well, you haven’t seen anything yet!

When the event was first posted on Facebook, many people did apply, yet they all apologized at the last moment, which was extremely frustrating. Since there were no enough participants, the organizers themselves had to pay in order to buy the materials. We all ended broke, therefore, we spend four days eating Koshry from (She7′ El-Balad). It did taste a little “odd” and Mo-ayed was very obsessed with hygiene, refusing to eat anything at first, but as you know, Hunger is an infidel. (Literal translation isn’t the biggest problem with this article, so shut the hell up!)

Regardless all we went through, we did stay committed to the project by adopting a local street cat and for the sake of making things weirder, Ragab decided to name her (Talafreak).

Animal abuse.

Aya started off by briefly explaining the difference between graffiti and street art, generally, with its different types and branches, trying to remain as specific as possible about our focus point during workshop #1.

Since the real aim of the workshop was to not to teach a technique (I mean, C’mon, even those guys can teach you that!) but to open minds to a new way of interacting with the Alexandrian street and understanding how to use its visual elements as vocabulary in creating a composition. Stencil, like any other art, is a tool that you can use in order to express your individual self. We are interested in ideas, not techniques.

Accordingly, the first thing we did was go for long walks in the city, taking pictures of every interesting thing we see. The faint beige squares, with Italian influence on its architecture, was fascinating and inspiring!

Here are some of the pictures that were taken:

Windsor Hotel.

احمر ناااري

A very old, beautiful building!

ربنا ياخدك يا آية

The atmosphere was a lot of fun and like Justin Bond said. “It’s just like the 60s, only with less hope!”

We also produced various pieces and will soon produce a full composition, experimenting with stencil art as much as we can.

Here are some of the works produced:

Long thoughtful piss.

L.S.A: Love, support & anal sex.

بانكسي كرموز

ما يحكاك الا ايدك

Sense. This picture makes none.

Gangsta coloring book!

برنس الليالي

Suicide.

كل شيء مظلم ,مرتعش و هارب

السنجة رنجة

مسارك مصيرك, مع تحيات سوسو مزلقان

All in all, the workshop was very interesting and an important step in our developing project. We will soon be posting information about any upcoming workshops/gatherings so stay updated!